Fur, it ain't just post holes. It's any excavation. Been there and didn't have enough dirt to fill the hole back up. And later on had way too much dirt left over.

knowledge that costed nothing

Fur is 100% right. My maw-maw had an almanac that she and my paw-paw lived by. They would not do ANYTHING unless it was the right time. Especially when it came to gardens, livestock, and fishing. Dad and I would go fishing and she would ask how we did. If I said we didn't catch much she would give me a certain look and say we should have asked her before going and she would have saved us the trouble. Say what you want, but pap-paw planted row crops on about 4 or 5 acres and they canned enough food for the year plus gave food to quite a few neighbor families every year.

That's the ticket Fur...you need to start a new Aldeer Almanack.
Get Skinny to put another row on the board and you can post up that wealth of knowledge. It would probably put "Poor Richard's" to shame.

Fur is dead on. Folks in the country would consult the almanac on when to did septic tank holes and field lines. Dig and cover on the wrong phase and you'll have a settled hole and shallow trenches. Word.

Now that's an idea.....

i don't know about fur's claim, but i can tell you this about post holes dug with diggers and not an augur: the hardness of ground is directly proportional to the depth of hole needed. example: my dad insisted on railroad ties for corner posts, sunk to the bottom edge of my hands, gripped at the top of the diggers. that danged red clay got harder and harder the farther i dug. i can prove this: i had a 17-inch neck when i was 13 years old, and i was skinny ...

Oh yeah, I can reverse her rotation in a heartbeat

How do I get into the excavation business? Sounds like I'd only be able to work a couple days a month!

Fur is dead on on the hole plus or minus dirt. When I dig irrigation up and fix it sometimes I have to bring in sand to top it off and sometimes I take dirt and sod with me. Not sure what causes it but I've been told the moon does.

It's the full moon where you will have too much dirt left over and on a new moon you won't have enough dirt is the way I have always understood it.

I've got to dig some foundations for my cabin, so I will pay attention to the lunar effect...

you mean that crap I made up is right?? I'll be John Brown, dang. smh

I flies in the face of everything I know about engineering...

... And simple math.

Here's what the Farmer's almanac says about it:

Moon Phases


PS: If Pliney the Elder says something about it... It's got serious written all over it... There is a damn good beer named after him.

Whatever phase the moon was yesterday is the phase when you have more dirt than you started with.

I had to dig a hole and replace a water pressure regulator at one of my rental houses yesterday. I had more dirt when I finished than I did when I started.

I have experienced the opposite of this phenomenon as well.

It's a new moon right now...

We rented a house one time with a big garden spot and moved in around the 4th of July. The landlords elderly mother lived next door and was plumb tickled when we planted some fall taters and squash right off. Them taters come up and took off growin real good. The older lady helped me to keep them clean and dirt pulled up around them. In the fall she showed up at my door one morning and said "according to the almanac the moon is right to dig them taters". She said that you should never dig them with the moon in the stomach or they would rot. The moon needs to be in the head (I believe that's right). We dug them that day and put them under the house. We had good big taters all winter.

My best friend and partner here at work has a Masters Degree in Civil Engineering... He actually kind of got pissed at me when I brought this subject up. He started showing me all kinds of calculations, sketches and diagrams...

... I told him, "Dude I know the math and why it shouldn't be that way, but there ain't a calculation short of astrophysics that will come close to explaining it."

There's a difference in knowing stuff through real life experience and reading stuff in books.

We travel all the time together and of course discuss some pretty goofy chit. For the record he believes in "remote veiwing" and has actually conducted experiments with another buddy of ours at work. They were surprisingly successful.